Microsoft, Defying Image, Has a Design Gem in Windows Phone — “GORGEOUS,” raves The Huffington Post. — “Best-looking smartphone operating system in the industry,” gushes Slate. — “Far superior to most if not all the Android smartphones,” says TechCrunch. — Sounds like the usual adulation for a gadget from Apple.

Acer's AcerCloud unveil is a blatant iCloud ripoff — Which is which? Acer just showed off its AcerCloud service, something that already sounded suspiciously like Apple's iCloud. Even the “PicStream” element sounds a lot like Photo Stream. Still not convinced?

Why Android tablets failed: A postmortem — Takeaway: Android tablets were expected to give the Apple iPad fierce competition in 2011. It never happened. Here's why Android tablets flopped. — As I gear up for CES 2012 next week, I can't help but think back to CES 2011 where the big story was all about Android tablets.

2011: The Year Google & Bing Took Away From SEOs & Publishers — Increasingly over the years, search engines — Google in particular — have given more and more support to SEOs and publishers. But 2011 marked the first significant reversal that I can recall, with both linking and keyword data being withheld.